Is there space for 'humiliation, insult' in Congress, asks Amarinder Singh

After putting in his papers, Amarinder Singh had said he felt 'humiliated'

Days after the party leadership secured his resignation leading to a change of guard in Punjab, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh continues to spew anger while the party's central leadership is in a conciliatory mode as it moves towards Punjab Cabinet expansion next week.

Refusing to be provoked by Captain's "inexperienced" barb against Gandhi siblings, the party on Thursday indicated it is not in a mood to ratchet up the issue and would prefer for Singh to cool down with the passage of time.

"He is our elder and the elderly often get angry and say a lot of things. We respect his anger, age and experience. We hope he does reconsider his words. But, there is no space in politics for anger, envy, enmity, vendetta, personal attacks and comments against political opponents," Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said.

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The party also refused to comment on whether Singh would leave the party after his "unceremonious" exit as the chief minister of Punjab, and said "if someone wants to leave, we have no comment to offer".

Singh had on Wednesday called Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra "inexperienced” and also threatened to pit a "strong" candidate against Punjab party unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu in the upcoming assembly polls.

Singh, meanwhile once again flagged his "insult". "Yes, there's no space for anger in politics. But is there space for humiliation and insult in a grand old party like Congress? If a senior party leader like me can be treated like this, I wonder what the workers must go through!," Singh said, hitting back.

Scaling up his attack on his bete noire Sidhu, the former Chief Minister called him a "drama master".

He was also dismissive of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and alleged that the Punjab government is from the party in Delhi. Singh made these remarks in an interaction with the media in Chandigarh. At the AICC briefing, Shrinate also reminded Singh was made the chief minister instead of Rajinder Kaur Bhattal.

“But I would not like to comment on those who want to leave the party. People make decisions in politics. Some in their own interest, some in the interest of their constituency but these are individual decisions to leave or join a party. I do not want to say anything on this,” she said amid speculation of Amarinder exploring other options and Congress not denying any such possibility.

Party sources said that Congress leadership will try to avoid a split in the state unit.

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